copying famous paintings

[Barney's pal]

If you copied a famous artist, and then sold it to the public as a copy done by yourself, would this be legal? Because the person would be aware they were buying only a copy, so it wouldn't be like a forgery I mean the copier would n't be breaking the law would they?

[jake-the-peg]

You might be in breech of copyright

Copyright on graphic works of art last for the creators life + 70 years.

So it rather depends on who you want to copy

[SaxyJag]

It would be perfectly legal. You aren't trying to pass it off as the original, and as long as you gave it provenance to prove that it's a copy, then you'd be OK.